This about an immigrant from dirt poor Burkina Faso, in
Africa, who now works in Washington DC as a concierge in a building, who supports his extended family back home
from his earnings. The tenants of the building once they got to know about what
he does, chipped in to help him provide more for the village back home,
including building a well etc. for a village does not even have electricity. It
is worth a read.

When I lived in the USA, I frequently came in contact with
the generosity, and caring of the average American to people in distress. In a
time when the US is maligned by Sri Lanka, one must remind Sri Lankans of the
good heart of the average American, whatever policy is adopted by the
Government. The people are decent, humble and have a streak of empathy and
sympathy for those who make an effort to help themselves.

In a period in Sri Lanka where people are trying to make a
fast buck, by foul means, I am sad to see that hard work and genuine effort is
not rewarded, and instead greed and avarice, and wishing to ape people who have
obtained their riches by foul means is admired.

We MUST impress on people that some of the values we have are
wrong. We must give credit to people who sincerely try to make a difference,
and not do it just for show. Many charity fund raisers here are for duty and
part of the Clubs people belong to such as, Lions, Rotary, Zonta and an endless
list where the primary purpose is to network, give members a chance to fine
tune their leadership and organizational skills, where raising funds for a
project is secondary, as a means to lend some social responsibility value to
it.

I am no doubt going to get some irate members of these
organizations refuting my allegations and that is fine, it just makes the
debate interesting, and thought provoking, the main aim of the blog. After all
we must help those who help themselves before we help those who hold their hand
out just because its free. The latter sadly are those who gain most from the
Sri Lankan model of charity.

Talking about charity, it is very difficult to guarantee
results, but if one directs it through someone trustworthy who is selfless in
their work, there is a greater likelihood of both deserving people receiving assistance
and gain the maximum productivity out of
the charity rupee.

Let us not kid ourselves. The Government of Sri Lanka is the
largest distributor of charity to people, a huge proportion of which no one
disputes is embezzled and wasted both by those in charge of distribution, and
the undeserving recipients, who do not use what is given for the intended
purpose. An important lesson in how we help, volunteer and donate.

2 comments:

Anonymous
said...

charity is a difficult nut to crack as if done poorly it seems like it is just throwing money at a problem which requires more institutional fixes. for example, with the gentleman whose village doesn't have a well and presumably all of the health and sanitation features that a modern place should have. is it because they don't have money to build a well and thus money to build a well will be the answer or is it something more deep-rooted? well, the people that don't want to think too much will say that they need some money and everything will be fine, but in reality the problem goes much deeper to institutional functionality, governance, and possibly international relations.